It looks like the Red River Cultural District is getting some new signage soon, showing off a logo for the venue-packed area of town that has had some epic highs and lows this year. We like the design of the posters and we’re glad that part of town is getting some new material to draw attention to its togetherness. We hope that this is also just a tease of larger civic attention for the Red River Cultural District, particularly since we’ve also heard that tension between Austin’s festival planners and neighborhood groups is heating up. Anyway, keep your eyes peeled for the new posters and for more Red River Cultural District news in the coming months.

The Weakerthans might hate Winnipeg but I have to say I’m continuously impressed with the music that comes out of the city. Take Tunic, for instance, who are bringing an onslaught of provincial noise to Beerland tonight, alongside local faves XETAS and Super Thief. The group was new to me but I’ve had their tour single “Sandpaper” on loop, punctuating my daily ritual of social media self-loathing with bone saw guitars and barking declarations. Tunic have the feel of a tundra-set snuff film, wrong and brutal but impossible to turn away from even as you ponder when they’ll set their murderous sonic sights on you. Super Thief and XETAS are different kinds of heavy, less angular and more devoted to ’90s hardcore than ’80s Chicago shit, but that should only serve to make this bill a full buffet of brutalism.

Nick Hanover got his degree from Disneyland, but he’s the last of the secret agents and he’s your man. Which is to say you can find his particular style of espionage here at Ovrld as well as Loser City, where he mostly writes about comics. You can also flip through his archives at Comics Bulletin, which he is formerly the Co-Managing Editor of, and Spectrum Culture, where he contributed literally hundreds of pieces for a few years. Or if you feel particularly adventurous, you can always witness his odd .gif battles with his friends and enemies on twitter: @Nick_Hanover

Up until the past couple months, Hotel Vegas’ default poster aesthetic had been repurposed ’70s sleaze, which is cool and all but I have to say I’m super into this rainbow riff they’ve got going on now. The poster for tonight’s Chain and the Gang show is probably the apex of this style, keeping the rainbow rebellion in the background as a dazed Ian Svenonius looks out from his jail cell at the paraphernalia that put him there and some cockroach mocking him with its on-the-nose symbolism of his illegal intake. Since this is Texas, whoever locked Ian up indulged in some legally a-okay assault, so he’s got a bandaid and a bloodied nose serving as keepsakes of his Texas trip. My only knock on this piece of art is that the headline text is a little too clean and modern. I don’t know, when I think of jail house handbills, Bebas Neue isn’t the font I’d pick, it being the default Taylor Swift text now and all.

Our friends in Three Bones shared some bad news yesterday, writing that they came home to discover that their gear had been stolen. The band is currently finishing up a residency at Scoot Inn, the second to last event is actually going down tonight with Anthony DaCosta and Linen Closet, which makes it even more unfortunate that their guitars have disappeared. If you have any info on the missing equipment, Three Bones urges you to call the police.

Ryan David Curtis put together this poster for his band US Weekly’s tour kick off at Holy Mountain tonight and even if it didn’t involve a male chastity device, it’s a no-brainer for Poster of the Week. So many Austin posters are cluttered as all hell but like US Weekly’s album art, this is poster is an excellent display of the power of white space, sticking to the band’s red, white and grey palette to catch the eye with minimal interference. The boldness of the font and that soft red keep your eye centered so well that it’s easy to miss the fact that the tennis player cut-outs are knocking a trapped penis back and forth. If that’s not a major artistic accomplishment, I don’t know what it is.

Thankfully this stunning bit of penis art is in service to an equally stunning bill, as US Weekly are getting sent off into the great unknown with the aid of the acerbic New China and the always reliable Borzoi as well as newcomers Desire Lines. If you haven’t peeped US Weekly yet, you’re in luck because they recently did a KVRX session that is sure to whet your appetite.

This weekend, local app start-up Joynt is launching with a collaboration with Juiceland and several great Austin acts, including Emily Bell, Megafauna, Gina Chavez and Quiet Company, allowing visitors to Juiceland to get new recordings by these acts on their smartphones. Anyone who adds Joynt to their phone and goes to any Juiceland location and checks in through the app receives the content and on top of that, Juiceland will donate 50 cents from each purchase to ECHO, a local non-profit dedicated to ending chronic homelessness in Austin. Also taking part in this launch is the Venus Illuminato, who will be playing our free day party at Holy Mountain on Sunday, so be sure to stop by after you get your free download!

Sunday brings another Austin newcomer to look out for. III Bones have been a slowly simmering success down in Florida and after recording their upcoming album at Good Danny’s relocated to Austin. The duo-centric group has a soulful-serenading presence that carries the spirit of Memphis blues and their flashes of foot stomping swamp rock will remind you of the tenacity of The Ghost Wolves. III Bones transcends any comparison though with their bold embrace of lo-fi sound. Its gritty and feels more than it sounds. Lead singer Victoria de Benedicty has a timeless voice with a trembling timbre that can stop you in your tracks or send you spiraling into a dance of total loss of body control. Joining them will be Blynd Birds, the garage blues culmination of Jared Michaels genre-swirling into a cohesive project. Michaels embraces the unheard of combining the voice of a raspy wearing traveler stumbling straight out of a western saloon with modern lightning quick electric guitar slamming. It promises to be a packed night of discovery of new favorites with Ben Ballinger delivering an intimate solo set and The Carousels new moniker Supermoon setting the night off right. See you at Hotel Vegas at 9PM!

We’re already fans of Twin Vision so it wouldn’t take much to encourage us to go catch one of their shows (or watch one of their videos), but holy shit, this poster Alisa Longoria did for the band’s upcoming gig at Trailer Space on Saturday, September 13th is a pretty fantastic incentive. Looking like a Dia de los Muertos interpretation of Hunter S. Thompson with holographic pogs for eyes, the central image of the poster is macabre but lighthearted. A good, striking central image is always a plus in poster design, but what’s equally notable here is the washed out, industrial grime color palette, a stark contrast to the muted coloring that dominates a lot of contemporary band design. I love the mixture of the fonts, too, from that grungy text in the sunglasses to the svelt, classical curves of the headliner and the more simplistic, clear info up top. Alisa Longoria did some fantastic work here, so be sure to give this designer the ultimate compliment by actually heading down to the show. It’s even free! –Nick Hanover

Fake Four Inc is one of the most exciting labels in hip-hop today, with a roster full of acts that are pushing the boundaries of the genre, whether it’s noise rap pioneers Moodie Black or the spacey classicism of Dark Time Sunshine, the latter of which is touching down in Austin tonight at Holy Mountain with a fleet of fantastic ATX acts on board. Dark Time Sunshine are a psych-leaning answer to Doomtree’s punk rap, sharing Doomtree’s penchant for breakneck beats and flows but filtering it through layers upon layers of trippy guitar samples and sunny vocal loops. For Austin support they’ve got The Good Life head honcho Clemits and Curbside Jones, a multitalented producer, emcee and writer whose Cherry Blossom Effect: Trance(end) reissue we singled out as one of last year’s best albums, as well as former Austin resident turned LA expat Rafael Vigilantics, audio collage master soundfounder. Denver’s Big J Beats is also on the bill, making that $8 jam packed with value.